Game theoretic control architecture for drilling system automation

A method comprising:

• providing a drilling system comprising a plurality of subsystems, each subsystem comprising a subsystem controller communicatively coupled with one or more sensors and one or more actuators;
• determining, at each subsystem controller, a local subsystem state from measurements received from the one or more sensors;
• obtaining a global state estimate based at least in part on the local subsystem states and command signals sent by each subsystem controller to one or more actuators;
• evaluating the global state estimates to determine updated control strategies required to achieve the performance objective of the system;
• communicating the updated control strategies to each of the plurality of subsystem controllers;
• actuating, at each of the plurality of subsystems, one or more actuators to adjust a drilling subsystem control variable in response to the updated control strategies.

A drilling system comprising:

• a plurality of drilling subsystems, each drilling subsystem comprising:
• a subsystem controller;
• one or more sensors;
• and
• one or more actuators;
• wherein each subsystem controller is configured to determine a local subsystem state from measurements received from the one or more sensors;
• a communication coordinator communicatively coupled with each of the plurality of subsystem controllers and configured to receive local subsystem states from each of the plurality of subsystem controllers, the communication coordinator further configured to receive, from each of the plurality of subsystem controllers, command signals sent by each subsystem controller to one or more actuators;
• a global state estimator communicatively coupled with the communication coordinator and configured to determine global state estimates based at least in part on the local subsystem states and the command signals received from the communication coordinator, the global state estimator further configured to transmit global estimates to a communication controller;
• and
• a global strategy controller communicatively coupled with the global state estimator and each of the plurality of subsystem controllers, the global strategy controller configured to receive and evaluate the global state estimates to determine updated control strategies required to achieve the performance objective of the system, the global strategy controller further configured to transmit said updated control strategies to each of the plurality of subsystem controllers;
• wherein each subsystem controller sends command signals to the one or more actuators based at least in part on the local subsystem state, global state estimates received from the communication coordinator, and the updated control strategy.

A method comprising:

• providing a drilling system comprising a plurality of subsystems, each subsystem comprising a subsystem controller communicatively coupled with one or more sensors and one or more actuators;
• determining, at each subsystem controller, a local subsystem state from measurements received from the one or more sensors;
• actuating, at each of the plurality of subsystems, one or more actuators to adjust a drilling subsystem control variable in response to a control action taken by a subsystem controller, obtaining, at an individual subsystem controller, global state estimates based at least in part on the local subsystem states and control actions taken by each of the subsystem controllers;
• evaluating, at the individual subsystem controller, the global state estimates to determine expected control actions of other subsystems;
• producing, at the individual subsystem controller, an uncorrected command signal based at least in part on the expected control actions of other subsystems;
• receiving, at the individual subsystem controller, the actual control actions of other subsystems;
• determining, at the individual subsystem controller, an estimated error based at least in part on the expected control actions of other subsystems and the actual control actions of other subsystems;
• generating, at the individual subsystem controller, a compensation signal based at least in part on the estimated error;
• adding the compensation signal to the uncorrected command signal to produce a corrected command signal;
• and
• actuating one or more actuators to adjust a drilling subsystem control variable in response to the corrected command signal.